The Liu group recently discovered that the deubiquitinase USP35 is a strong anti-apoptotic protein evidenced by the fact that depletion of USP35 in multiple cancer cells could greatly sensitize cancer cells to oncology drug-induced apoptosis. As such, this team is interested in identifying novel inhibitors of USP35 as potential anticancer agents. During this period, the project team completed screening of over 100,000 small molecules, and is in the process of selecting hits for cherrypicking and validation studies.